We’ve landed back at LAN from a quick trip east for my grandmother’s 100th birthday. She’s an absolute amazing woman at 100. Maybe I have some gene power from that, who knows? Although she’s physically unable to do things people like to do, her mind is absolutely in tact and I find it fascinating.
We discovered earlier this year that she is directly descended from some big wig Massachusetts settlers, even a distant relative named John Adams. She’s an old school New Englander to a tee and one of her interests is politics. She commented to me on the upcoming presidential race: “Where did all the men go? There are no more men left anymore.”
What kind of gift do you get for a sophisticated hundred year old? My grandmother loves reading. So I picked up two books, which I’ve never read (I’m sure she’ll give me her review), My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams by Abigail and John Adams, and The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly which is a collection of writings from the past 150 years of the Atlantic Monthly magazine. A third gift was a digital voice recorder. I’m hoping that my Aunt and the nurses will encourage her to record her memories from the last century.
Happy Birthday Grandmother!
It certainly felt like Smokey and the Bandit for us this weekend except we drove the New Hotness solo. We left the Lou Thursday evening in hopes of making it in early Friday to have more time with family. But it didn’t go quite like we imagined.
Somewhere in the blackness of south Indiana we hit a deer. Well, it had expired just moments before we happened upon it. A tractor trailer had combusted the animal and painted the interstate most likely seconds in front of us. As I was doing my best to dodge parts, out of the black and on the road was what we assume was the rest of the torso. I had no choice but to go over it as I was moving too fast to swerve, nor did I want to hit it with my tires.
An enormous thud and thrust was felt on the bottom of the car but there was no apparent damage – no vibration, no noise, no pull on the steering. It was as if nothing had happened. We drove by the tractor trailer who had pulled to the side of the road to inspect his mangled front end, and kept on driving deciding to stop for the night far short of our objective.
The next day we searched for a car wash close to our route. We finally found one on our lunch break outside of Huntington. I had to power wash… well you can imagine… off the side of the car, front end, wheel wells, you name it. I looked under the car for the first time to find the engine cover hanging from under the car. I did have some damage after all and with luck the Toyota dealer right down the street had me fixed up within 40 minutes. The New Hotness is currently parked at the dealer here back at the Lou for a thorough inspection and undercarriage cleaning first thing in the morning. I feel fortunate we didn’t hit one of the animals head on.
Another highlight of the weekend was the bammers losing to Sunbelt Conference bottom feeders UL Monroe. I managed to read some great columns on the mobile device in the car today. I really liked Paul Gattis’ column in the Huntsville Times: “All the money in the world, though, couldn’t buy a win Saturday against a team that had lost 25 straight to SEC opponents and left with a losing record despite the victory before an announced sellout of 92,138.” Even the generic AP recap was humbling: “It was a sloppy performance that left Saban, paid $4 million a year to turn around a traditional power, “embarrassed for all our fans.”” Make sure you check out the “Roll Over Tide” graphic in that story on ESPN.com if you follow the link.
But don’t discount the bammers or expect them to rollover. No on the contrary, expect them to play hard. This is a team that put up over 40 points on a team who is two wins away from being SEC champs. The bammers have played hard in some games this year and I expect no less from them this week. It will be an up hill climb for Auburn this Saturday.
Well I’m off to relax before sleepy time. More to come on the bammers as we go through the week. Thanks for stopping by.
